Language Anxiety

Like math anxiety, anxiety around other academic domains are also associated with decrements and performance. In previous work, we validated the Academic Anxiety Inventory (Pizzie & Kraemer, 2019). This scale measures anxiety associated with 5 domains that are relevant to education: math, science, writing, testing, and trait (general) anxiety. In this way, we can measure anxiety associated with a number of different domains in education, and in future research the CAN lab will be exploring anxiety associated with language.

In the deaf and hard of hearing community, there exists a wide variety of experiences with language, and many individuals are bilingual and bicultural, using both American Sign Language (ASL) and English. Our lab explores how language anxiety--anxiety about learning ASL, reading or writing in English, etc. is associated with challenges or barriers for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners. We hope that by understanding some of the barriers that negative emotion can create in learning and language development, we can lessen or eliminate some of these challenges, and improve language learning and create more positive experiences for learners.